Heretofore, electro-mechanically actuated door lock release mechanisms, such as are used in security doors, have been made capable of remote opening in a number of ways. One method has been to provide a remotely actuatable electro-magnetic mechanism connected to the strike plate of a door lock, mounted in the door frame, which, when electrically actuated, causes an element in the strike plate to be mechanically withdrawn through operation of a magnetic force.
Another method has been to provide electrical power to an electro-mechanically actuatable door lock mechanism imbedded in the door, through an armored electrical cable, which enters the door from an upper portion of the frame, and runs through the core of the door, either in a hollow-core door, or through a channel in a solid core door, to the lock mechanism.
Certain doors include substantial surface portions that are made of glass and have outer frames, typically made from hollow tubular metal, such as aluminum or steel, which frames surround the glass panel portions and hold them in place. The metal frame portions of such doors are typically fairly narrow, frequently not exceeding two inches in width. Because the surfaces of these doors are substantially made entirely of solid glass, it is not possible to run a cable through the door, as can be done with hollow-core wood or metal doors, or even through a channel made in a solid wood door, running from the point of entry, such as in the aforesaid case of the armored cable, from the edge of the upper surface of the door inwardly to the lock mechanism.
It is impractical and unesthetical to run a wire, even encased in an armored cable, along either the inside or outside glass surfaces from an outer edge of the door to the door lock mechanism, which is located in the vicinity of the handle and trim. In a single pane solid glass door, it is necessary to have at least a portion of a hollow tubular outer surrounding door frame, extending around the outer periphery of the glass panel, extend at least to the vicinity of the door handle and locking mechanism, which is usually encased in a housing near a point at about a typical person's convenient hand-reach level, which is usually near the mid-point in the height of most doors that are from about 6 feet to about 8 feet in height, and can be at a point below the mid-point height of the door in the case of doors of greater height. There is a need in the art of locking mechanisms for doors, especially doors which have a substantial portion of their surfaces made from glass, or from other materials wherein their surfaces are substantially solid and not hollow, and which have relatively narrow frames surrounding the glass or other material, for providing a means for remotely electro-magnetically actuating the door lock mechanism, such that the actuating mechanism can be concealed in the tubular door frame, and such that the mechanism is connected to the door lock mechanism inside the door in the vicinity of the handle.
Such a situation as described above with respect to doors exists more generally in a wide variety of mechanical systems, wherein a second component that is movable is capable of assuming at least one first, fixed position with respect to a first, fixed component, and is held in that position by a fastener; and the second component is also capable of alternatively assuming at least one other, second position with respect to the first component, wherein the second component is movable with respect to the first component, after the fastener has been released using a remotely actuatable control device.
Thus, there is an issue in providing the deactuating electrical signal to the movable component at the position of the lock without using unsightly or cumbersome wiring.